


Snowblind

by MissMisto



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Canon Universe, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Mild Gore, Mild Heartbreak, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mild Language, Much cheesiness, Non-Canon Relationship, Pisces Maxson is my aesthetic, Self-Doubt, Some Humor, mentions of sexual behaviour, shit goes down in the last chapter, some Canon Dialogue, too many tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-03 11:19:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11531124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissMisto/pseuds/MissMisto
Summary: “ 'Do you have anything you wish to tell me, Knight?'...the Knight outright flinched at his tone."Set during the events of Blind Betrayal. Knight Bellamy has to come to terms with her decisions as her day gets progressively worse.





	1. The Mission

“Knight Bellamy, Sir.”

The Elder’s blue gaze over the Commonwealth broke with the knight’s voice and he felt himself slouch instinctively as her presence filled his space. He’d realise just how much he was straining himself standing uptight like some gruff statue, with the burden his duties brought tense on his shoulders, until he had finally relaxed.   

He stood there for a moment, hesitant, then he turned his head to look over to her. He huffed out a low chuckle despite himself at the sight of the Knight wearing layer upon layer of clothing under a baggy Brotherhood uniform in an attempt to block out the February cold raging below, resembling a rather petite meatball. Her thin hands were rosy from the cold despite her gloves, her auburn hair was ruffled with a fluffy beret stuffed onto her head and her nose an amusingly bright red. He stiffened again when he saw the look in her eyes and turned to her with a sharp breath. This wasn’t going to be easy.

“Do you have anything you wish to tell me, Knight?” he said, forcing himself to be curt but felt his insides burn when the Knight outright /flinched/ at his tone.

“I… No.. No sir, I don’t have anything to hide-..”

“Is that so?” he interrupted bitterly, his anger boiling back to life. “Given how you seem to have become closer to the Paladin than anyone ever has over the last couple of weeks, I find that hard to believe.”

It was the Knight’s turn to furrow her brows, confusion washing over her features.

“What, I…” she shook her head exhaustedly. “Look Sir, the Paladin is my mentor and I owe him for teaching me a lot of what I know and introducing me to the Brotherhood. While it’s true we’re close friends, our relationship has always been strictly professional and there’s that. All I ask is for you to keep that in mind before you accuse me of anything in the lines of overstepping my boundaries.”

Maxson was taken aback by her reply. He knew that she and the Paladin understandably had a strong bond from their time together, but he’d never thought about them as anything more than companions. He could see how others on the Prydwen could though, even seen the looks a couple of the newer Initiates and Knights threw at them that made him want to chain them to the outside of the damn ship, so she was probably used to giving such a response. He silently applauded her for that.

“No.. No, it’s.. not about that,” he said, letting himself let his guard down slightly, beginning a slow pace across the room. “Proctor Quinlan was looking into the data you retrieved from the Institute and found a list of all the synths that went missing from their facility. After further analysis we discovered something.. Unprecedented.”   

“One of the synths on that list, namely M7-97 showed Danse under that file and their DNA was a perfect match.”

 " _What?_ ”  the Knight blurted out after a pause, her grey eyes widening with disbelief and alarm.

“No no no, this can’t be right. This _isn’t_ right.”

“I’m afraid it is,” the Elder responded, stopping his pace, “Proctor Quinlan went over the reports multiple times and couldn’t find any other conclusion.”  He slowly walked back towards her and their eyes met. No, there was no way she could have known. Probably the poor bastard himself was oblivious to the truth until this moment. His attention got caught again when he noticed that her breath got caught in her throat. He hesitated, afraid the gesture could break her already fragile state at first, but laid his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently. He was glad he did when he saw her let out that breath finally and relaxed under his touch, her eyes no longer wounded, but tired.

“I’m sorry Grace.” He muttered, his hand cupping her face now. He caressed her porcelain cheek with his thumb.

The Knight sighed softly. “It’s alright,” her whisper was like a ghost’s. “It’s just..” she looked up at him, “I had no idea. He never told me anything. I doubt he even knew.”

The Elder nodded at her mirrored thoughts, “Exactly what I think is the case. Though I couldn’t be sure at first. Thought he might have told you somehow, dragged you into this mess.” He said in a voice that matched hers, mentally cursing himself for approaching her so aggressively. He’s worked with the Paladin for years now, saw him climb up to the rank of Paladin to be one of the most respected men in the entire outfit, but the news should’ve hit the Knight as hard as it hit him, if not more.

“No,” she assured him without hesitation, “there was no way you could have known. It’s alright.” He marvelled at how her words always soothed him.

She smiled weakly at him, placing her hand gingerly on top of his. Maxson sighed to the lovable sight before him, still slightly amused that her nose was still red. They stood like that for a moment in each other’s arms before the Knight took a sharp breath and stepped back, their entwined hands sliding down to their sides. Her eyes grew grim, aware of what was coming next.

“Where is he now?”

“He’s gone AWOL,” he cleared his throat, “vanished before we could apprehend him. Proctor Quinlan will have more information. He’ll tell you everything you need to know.” She nodded warily first, then nodded more surely after a moment of thought. “I’ll see him right away.”

After she squeezed his hand assuredly with both her hands, she moved back a little to slip away, but the Elder’s grip stayed firm, hesitant to let her go.

“Are you sure about this? We can arrange a squad to accompany you, or..”

“No. I have to do this alone. Better this way.” She said curtly, trying to keep her sentences short so her voice wouldn’t give out. Maxson nodded solemnly.

“Alright. You know what to do. Come back and report immediately after you’re done.”

“Affirmative.” The Knight said as she stepped back and the Elder allowed their hands to separate.

Knight Bellamy was about to walk out the door when she heard a gruff huff behind her, which was Maxson’s way of chuckling. She looked back at him and saw him shaking his head.

“The timing surely could have been better.” She chuckled lightly back, rubbing a sore spot on her neck. It was his birthday yesterday.

“Couldn’t agree more, Sir.”

He actually laughed at that and she felt her insides melt despite everything.

“I’ll be back right away.”

“I haven’t doubted that once.” He smiled softly at her. “Be brave, Knight.”

“Sir.” And she closed the door behind her.

 


	2. The Plan

Knight Grace Bellamy rested against the door behind her for a moment, hoping it’d help her wracked nerves. The man had actually asked her to murder her best friend.

The situation and the solution that came with it was loud and clear to her of course, but it didn’t help her shocked state or her trembling hands she fought to hide from those around her. She went over the conversation in her head a couple of times, but the more she did so, the more she slowly lost her breath. And the centimetres of wool clothing she wore wasn’t helping much either. She had to go outside for a second.

She strutted over to the door and was greeted with a blast of thick cold air on her face and the startled looks she got from the knights on watch, immediately regretting her decision. But she _was_ grateful for the rush of adrenaline, thus the heightened senses it brought. She caught her breath, looking at the Commonwealth covered with a veil of snow.

She almost felt home again, in the timeline she belonged to before it everything went down, with the signs of the annihilation centuries ago silenced in white. It’s been months since she got out of the Vault but she still couldn’t come to terms with what she lost. Not completely, anyway. She doubted she ever would but whatever was to come for her new world below, nothing was going stop her fight for it. Behind her, the General of the Minutemen, stood the Railroad and the Brotherhood of Steel- she still wasn’t entirely sure how she was going to make this alliance work at all, but it was the best hope the Commonwealth had, including her and her son.

That didn’t matter for now though. For now it was just Grace, the clash of her loyalty to the Brotherhood (not to mention her infatuation of the Elder of said Brotherhood chapter) and her loyalty to a true friend- and finally the cold irony that situation brought. Might as well not dally and face it head first.

She rushed inside after muttering an apology to the two knights and headed to Proctor Quinlan’s office. There the Proctor greeted her gently, aware of how this might have taken its toll on the young Knight. She nodded, grateful of that, and listened to what he had to say. Danse’s whereabouts were as much an unknown element to him as much it was to her, apparently.

“I think our best approach would be to identify every location he’s ever visited, and eliminate them as possibiliti-…”

“What the hell is this crap about Danse being a synth!?” a voice behind her spat. Grace and the Proctor blinked in surprise and she turned her head a bit to see it was Haylen. She grimaced and turned back, trying to obscure her face. Out of all people especially she shouldn’t have to be hearing this.

She sighed and listened to her throw her rage to the Brotherhood’s decision and how she had turned her back to Danse after all he’d done for her, rightfully so. She responded as neutrally as possible as to not arise any doubt in the Proctor. Then everything suddenly calmed as the Scribe responded with the same attitude as hers, offering to show the information she’d acquired of Danse’s whereabouts, much to the relief of Quinlan. So after a nod of gratitude to him, Grace gingerly followed the Scribe to the deck, her face slightly red from frustration. After a short trip to the terminals downstairs, she finally turned to her.

“Do you.. actually plan on killing Paladin Danse?”

The words literally fell out of her mouth. “Hell _no_.”

The Scribe made a weak sound in shock.

Well that was one way to put it. It was definitely far from formality, or most likely anything that was allowed to be said between the ranks of the Brotherhood, but she needed her to know she was as firm about this as Haylen was.

“I… _Wow_.” She chuckled, relaxing visibly. “I was not expecting that.”

 Grace shrugged.

“I know what the Brotherhood taught me. They told me to never turn my back on my team and stay together no matter what, and that’s what matters. That’s simply the right thing to do.” She looked at her and smiled assuredly. “Nothing could make me betray my senior, let alone a _friend_ like that, Haylen.”

“Exactly,” she breathed finally. “Danse, is the most selfless person I’ve ever met. I’ve watched him risk his own life based on nothing more than principle alone. That’s why I wanted to ask you, not just a member of the Brotherhood, but as a human being, to at least give him a chance.” She looked up at her with bright eyes. “But I never needed to, did I?”

Grace’s smile widened and she responded with a soft shake of her head.

 “Thank you.” The Scribe let out a sigh she’d been holding in for a while and began.

“Before the Prydwen showed up, Danse made me identify a fall back point if we ever lost the police station.”

“It was listening post Bravo! An old pre-war US military outpost on the northern frontier of the Commonwealth. It’s isolated and we’re the only ones who knew about it. So… There’s a good chance that’s where he’s headed. Just..” she hesitated. “Be careful. There’s no telling what state of mind he’s in right now. Or if he trusts any of us at all.”

Grace nodded, marking the area Haylen described with her Pip-Boy. When she was done, she turned back at her and gave the smaller lady a big hug. The Scribe laughed and hugged her back, swaying ever so slightly.

“Thank you, Haylen. For everything.”

She chuckled against her shoulder. “No need to thank me. Just… Make sure he’s safe.”

“Don’t worry. I will.”

“And give the Elder my regards, please?”

Grace didn’t even try to stifle her laugh.


End file.
